While I was in college, I got into a habit that first made me laugh, then gave me pause. When I went to wash my hands, I would simply stick my hands in the sink and, for a split second, wonder why the water didn’t turn on.

It was because I hadn’t turned the handle on the faucet.

I ruefully asked myself what my ancestors would think of me growing so accustomed to automatic faucets with proximity sensors that I expected someone else to turn on the water for me. They might think it was witchcraft. They would probably also think that I was incredibly lazy.

Yet this is a reality in our culture. We expect – and get – immediate results. We don’t know how to wait.

This shows up in places far beyond water faucets. A question pops into our heads, so we immediately pick up our phones to Google the answer. We worry when friends take more than two hours to respond to our texts. We get frustrated when our electric oven takes 20 minutes to preheat rather than the usual 15.

Thanks to the unprecedented technological advancements of the last several decades, speed and efficiency have become our gods. We can dry laundry in under an hour thanks to our electric dryers, reheat food in 30 seconds thanks to microwaves, and even send messages to friends across the world in seconds thanks to the internet. These blessings would be unfathomable to 99.99% of humans throughout history.

It’s a part of human nature, but we take these efficient technological blessings for granted … and then we bemoan our shrinking attention spans and inability to stay focused on a task without checking our phones or getting distracted.

The media that we consume caters to these shorter attention spans, making them a self-fulfilling prophecy. Short-form video content (usually under two minutes long) is on the rise. We’re reading for pleasure less and less. Instant gratification – and its associated dopamine hits – is our new favorite drug. (Even while researching for this article, I found all my sources on the internet in under a minute. I can’t ignore the nagging feeling that doing research is almost too easy.)

The good news is that the phenomenon of the “dopamine detox” is (ironically) gaining traction on the internet. Bloggers, influencers, and podcasters are encouraging their audience to embark on this “detox” by limiting screen time, spending time outside, and consuming physical media such as books and art for marked improvements in mental health, sleep quality, and stress levels. Thousands of testimonies vouch for the benefits avoiding the easy dopamine rush of instant gratification in favor of practicing patience and presence of mind.

The consensus? We can reap long-term benefits from giving up pastimes that are enjoyable in the short-term, even when the sacrifice of these pastimes is painful.

Welcome to Lent, y’all.

During Lent, millions of Christians choose a habit or pleasure – or several – to forgo for the 40 days between Ash Wednesday and Easter Sunday in observance of the penitential season that celebrates Jesus Christ’s suffering and death. Such denial isn’t unique to Christianity, either. Muslims, for example, observe a period of intentional fasting, prayer, and almsgiving during Ramadan. Observers of both penitential seasons focus on training the will and increasing virtue through practices of self-mortification.

As a Christian, the practice of Lenten self-denial and sacrifice is intensely meaningful to me. Forgoing things that I enjoy for Christ’s sake forces me to move through life more slowly. By avoiding frivolous screen time or adding prayer time to my schedule, I’m trying to sacrifice speed and entertainment for patience and, oftentimes, boredom … which might just be the best thing for me mentally as well as spiritually.

Even without spiritual significance, making sacrifices is a worthwhile and noble practice. Self-restraint is particularly difficult today when we’re surrounded with immediate answers and quick fixes, yet it is essential for developing self-control and patience.

It’s counterintuitive, but giving up something that makes us happy often makes us happier.

So give up something you enjoy. You might be happier for it.

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